Who's A Gangster?

"Where were our watchdogs? One politician was arrested this morning, it's true, but where were his colleagues on city council, where were the provincial politicians who should have acted as watchdogs? Where was the chief returning officer? Where was the minister of municipal affairs?"
MNA Jacques Duchesneau, Coalition Avenir Quebec

It's logical enough that he would ask. He was formerly head of a provincial anti-collusion task force. And considers the arrests just announced of former Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt along with 36 others alleged to have operated the third-largest municipality of the Province of Quebec as an entitled gangster-empire, as representing "a bright day for justice but a sad day for democracy."

There were always rumours of broad corruption in Laval. And he couldn't understand what has taken so long for an investigation to be initiated. The current charges date the charged infractions to have dated from 1996. Federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair knew all about those allegations of corruption. But explained why he too accepted the status quo as provincial environment minister under the Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest.

"Charest told me that he could not do that (block development of Laval wetlands). We needed him too much for the elections", he explained during an interview that took place with L'actualite, in 2011. Excuse me? This is the man currently the official Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, the Parliament of Canada. This is a man aspiring to become Prime Minister of Canada, and who feels he has the knowledge and the experience to do just that.

As provincial minister of the environment what kept him back from insisting that wetlands are meant to be protected, not exploited and destroyed on the corrupt whim of a tyrannical and corrupt local politician. If Mr. Mulcair was incapable of exerting his authority and evidencing his adherence to ethics in his post, how is the voting public to believe that he is to be trusted with the much larger stewardship of the country itself?

Gilles Vaillancourt ran the City of Laval for 23 years, finally resigning because of the scandal related to the stark and stunning revelations of corruption brought before a provincial enquiry into corruption, headed by Justice France Charbonneau. Former city manager Claude Asselin, former director of engineering Claude Deguise now also face charges, including gangsterism.

And Mr. Vaillancourt himself is alleged to have been the head of an "organized and structured network" of corrupt collusion. "These are extremely serious accusations", added Robert Lafreniere, commissioner of the provincial anti-corruption police squad UPAC. The search warrant executed last fall at Mr. Vaillancourt's residence, at banks with his rented safety deposit boxes, at city hall and his political party offices, ensured evidence was retrieved.

And it was, after all, the Liberal government of then-Premier Jean Charest that had finally appointed the Charbonneau Commission to look into the far-flung corruption of Quebec's construction industry and its ties to municipal governments. Crimes were committed "for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal organization", according to the charges, with Mr. Vaillancourt singled out as having instructed others to commit offences as ringleader of a criminal organization.

Construction magnate Tony Accurso facing other criminal charges, was also charged with corruption in this regard, along with Rosaire Sauriol, former vice-president of engineering company Dessau, and Francois Perrault, former vice-president of engineering company Genivar. All face charges including fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust and corruption.

A massive clean-up of the province is finally underway.